Wave Wet Sand
by Yukari Rin
Summary: Yondaime Hokage x female!Uchiha Shisui oneshots written for the 30 Kisses community on livejournal.
1. Overflow

**Title:** "Overflow"  
**Author:** Yukari Rin  
**Pairing:** Yondaime and Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme:** #27, overflow  
**Rating:** K  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.  
**Notes:** Shisui will be written as a female in all my fics for this challenge. Dedicated to Hyorin for creating such a fabulous(ly cracked out) OTP.

"Overflow"

Shisui wondered if it was possible to love too much. The Yondaime had loved his home and all of the people in it so much that he gave his life up for them. And years later, his love was still felt throughout the village.

She wondered, because her love for him still caused her heart to ache at his absence. It still caused her body to long for his. Her love for him made her act against her clan's ideals, but it made her reach out and save her family's newest prodigy. He thanks her, but she knows his father is not pleased with his new behavior. It isn't good to have the two geniuses spend so much time together if they may be plotting destruction.

She used to tell him, between passionate kisses during stolen moments, that her love for him would drive her to her death. And she is partly right, in the end. It was he who taught her how to love, and in turn she realized that by loving she could not perform her duties properly. She chooses him, and her love for him, abandoning her status and her family one day when she understands there is no forgetting him.

She drowns herself in the river she and he would often eat private lunches together at, and she tells herself that her love is too great to be contained in her body, and that is why she can no longer live a lie.


	2. News, letter

**Title:** "The Way it Is"  
**Author:** Yukari Rin   
**Series:** _Naruto_  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s):** YonShi/ShiYon with mentions of Obito, Rin, Kakashi, and miscellaneous Uchiha.

**Theme:** #02, news; letter  
**Rating:** T  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.  
**Notes:** Birthday gift for the super awesome Hyorin, the Shisui to my Yondaime. And with all the fluff I've been writing lately, I'm glad I was able to crank out a bit of angst for you. Hope you enjoy! This has been sitting on my brain for a while.

In stories, it always rains when the hero or one of his companions dies. It makes the loss more dramatic, and no one really cares if the rain was actually falling at the time or not. Shinobi know that this isn't always the case.

The day Uchiha Obito died, the sun was shining and there were no clouds in the sky. As the boy's sensei trudges back into Konoha, he feels the weight of the world upon him. The remaining two members of his team are dealing with the loss differently. The girl is lost in thought, her silence slightly disturbing. The boy, only a quarter of his face showing as the rest is either covered by his mask or by a bandage over his left eye, cannot stop shaking his head. Whether it is due to questions, disbelief, or the pain of the makeshift surgery he had, the blond sensei does not know. The girl keeps the boy's left arm tight in her hand as she guides him.

Their teacher tells them to go directly to the hospital; he will make the mission report on behalf of Kakashi. And he will go to the Uchiha District and bring news of their fallen clansmen. He knows it is a part of being a shinobi, but he never stops believing that children should not die before their parents.

He is tired when he steps out of the Hokage Tower. He wants to fall to his feet and sleep, but his job is not finished. He almost misses her standing in the shade of a dead tree that should be uprooted before it causes damage. He opens and closes his mouth, but the words do not come out. He takes a deep breath, and she is by his side, hand looping with his and pulling him along. They end near the Heroes Memorial.

"Tell me how he died," she ordered. Her voice was soft, but he could hear the edge of emotion that she held back (as all Uchiha did). She crouches beside the last name carved on the rock and pulls out a shuriken, poising if above the smooth surface.

He recounts the story that had been given to him by Rin and Kakashi, and apologizes when he finishes.

She looks at him, face stern and eyes sharp. He wonders if he has offended her.

"He died on duty. He chose to life his life that way," she tells him, putting the kunai back and wiping the dust from her job off of the stone. She rises and looks at her work.

"But he was-"

She silences him with a finger to his lips. "He admired you, and I'm sure he is thankful that you are concerned for him. But you're forgetting the rules we as shinobi live by. We do not cry for the fallen."

"I know that!" he cries out, chest heaving. "I just..."

She tilts his face downwards with her hand at his chin. She rolls onto the balls of her feet and kisses him. Their lips only brush against each others' for the briefest of moments, but it has the desired effect. She draws back but he wraps his arms around her and lays his head on her shoulder. Her arms are bent and she hesitates in folding them over his back.

"You're too compassionate. It will be the death of you, you know." She smiles into his soft blond hair that shines too brightly in the sun.


	3. Look Over Here

**Title:** "When We Were Young"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin   
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage and Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme:** #01, look over here  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.  
**Notes:** Still in need of some angst and all I can write is fluff. Let's just say the dark haired girl on Yondy's team was Shisui, hm?

"When We Were Young"

The young blond stuck out his tongue as he concentrated on the task at hand. His female teammate looked at him with a bored expression and sighed, dropping her elbow from her knee and standing up.

"Do you want me to do it?" she asked slightly irritated.

The boy shook his head without sparing her a glance. "I've got it, no problem."

"You've been trying to get it for over half an hour."

He squeezed his left eye close and narrowed his right one, sure that this time he'd succeed.

He didn't.

The girl sighed again, more dramatically than the last time and tossed her black hair over her shoulder. "I'm going now." She turned on her heel and headed over to a dango vendor, making use of her small fan as she waited. The night was hot and sticky, and even her yukata felt too hot. She glanced back at her blond teammate and noted his tenacity, though he really should learn when to give up.

"Here you go, miss," the vendor spoke as he handed her her food.

"Excuse me, sir, would you tell me what the time is?" she asked politely, surprising the old man.

"Why, it's a little after nine pm, miss."

"Thank you," she bowed slightly and walked back into the path. She didn't much care for festivals (too many people) but it was an order from her sensei to come, and she was supposed to meet up with her team half past nine. Another glance to the booth she had been at with her friend showed her he was still trying.

She shook her head and sighed. 'He better not be late,' she thought as she headed over to the appointed meeting spot.

She was the first to arrive, the third student on the team showing up a few minutes after her (plate covered with food in hand). They exchanged greetings before quieting down and listening to the cicadas. Their sensei arrived; face pink with drunkenness and kimono almost close to being indecently loose. The Toad Master stole some of his male student's food as he winked at her. She rolled her eyes and continued fanning herself. (Her fan was red and white, just like the one carefully and lovingly stitched into the back of her yukata.)

There was a pounding of footsteps along the path ('How un ninja-like,' she tells herself.) and soon a voice to go with it. "Shisui! Shisui, look! I got one!" The blond comes into view from amongst the trees. He's smiling brightly and his face is flushed with exertion. He reaches his team and holds up the medium-sized plastic bag with the small fish looking rather dazed.

She raises a delicate brow as she leans in to inspect the fish. It's a beta, dark blue and deep red.

"I aimed for this one because he's got your colors," he tells her, voice proud. "What are you going to name him?"

She looks at him, a touch confused. "It's your fish."

Now it is his turn to roll his eyes as he uses his free hand to take one of her and out the bag in her white hands. She holds it securely without meaning to, but doesn't pull her eyes away from his. "I got him for you, Shisui," he tells her as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

Her brows knit together. "Why?"

Their teacher and teammate begin laughing, (but why and at whom she isn't sure) and the blond blushes. She looks down at the fish again - it is rather pretty, after all - and leans in to kiss the boy on his cheek. He twitches away from her, surprised. She joins in with the other two males laughing, her voice softer and more melodious.

The blond wonders if he should be noticing the difference, but while he contemplates his thoughts the rest of his team has wandered off down the path to look for a good spot to see the fireworks from. It is Shisui who turns around and puts a thin hand to her face. "C'mon, you're the one who wanted good seats, aren't you?"

He grins and nods, blond hair dancing at the motion and sets off at a jog towards her.


	4. Jolt!

**Title:** "Catnap, interrupted"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin   
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage x Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme:** #03, Jolt!  
**Rating:** K  
**Notes:** I wish I could tell you what this is, but I have no explanation and no idea how to make it into or a part of something longer. And hey! They're not little!little kids in this, which is an improvement, no?  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

**"Catnap, interrupted"**

The grass was a little hard, but not uncomfortably so. The summer sky was bright blue with not a single cloud to block the golden sun. He sighed and wiggled himself into a more comfortable position, content with how enjoyable his day had been. A quick catnap on the field before meeting up with his team wouldn't hurt anybody.

The sudden coolness only shade could bring made him sigh childishly. His legs seemed even warmer as the person standing above his head shaded his upper body. "You know, you were born in the wrong hidden village, Shisui."

The shade drew back and the parasol Shisui often carried around with her when she wasn't on duty snapped to a close and slammed into his abdomen. "You were late for the meeting."

He groaned and put his hand on his stomach tentatively, wondering how large a bruise she blessed him with. If she could kiss as well as she could punch, he wouldn't mind kissing her - in a few years, of course, his told himself stubbornly. First he had to make himself worthy of her.

"Sensei said that for this mission you're doing all the grunt work," Shisui's tone was slightly bored, and he heard the mechanism in the light umbrella click locked as she opened it again.

"Fine by me, I'll get to show off my new move," he opened an eye and gave her a cheeky grin.

The edge of her lips twitched into an almost smile. "W- _You're_ going to be covering a farm's fields with fertilizer." She spun around and walked away, hiding the large smile on her face from him.


	5. Kiss

**Title:** "In the Secret, In the Quiet Place"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin   
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage x Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme:** #30, Kiss  
**Word Count:** 1,206  
**Rating:** M/MA  
**Notes:** Because they aren't getting any _yet_ in EloquentSociety (or Oshima High.) About the title - I have trouble titling things, and as I sat pondering what to call this, I got the song the title is from stuck in my head, for reasons I have no clue as to why. Buuut, even though the lyrics are meant to be for God, there's something about them I can see working for YonShi/ShiYon. The wanting to know the other as deeply as possible and the longing they have to be with the other, to touch and to hear them.  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties. Title taken from the Christian praise song "In the Secret" which has been covered so often that I don't know who the original writer is. But I'll attribute The Insyderz's version for the inspiration. 

**"In the Secret, In the Quiet Place"**

His palm is rough (not unlike her own, but the skin on the majority of her body is smoother than his, and so the difference is more noticeable) as it slides down her bare back. As she buries her face between his shoulder and his neck she feels her back prickle into goose bumps, and tries to stop shivering. He is so very warm, impossibly warm, she told herself over and over since they had peeled their clothes off of each other. And he ignites a fire within her. The first flame always scares her the most, but he is also so similar to oxygen for her, so the fire grows quickly.

The silky wave of her hair as it drops down to her shoulders eases her shivering, but then he lifts his other hand up to move back the black curtain from her ivory neck and trails his lips along her neck. She squeezes her eyes shut, wishing she had longer nails as her fingers dig into his sides. His hand on her back slides down past her waist and he pulls away from her neck and she can no longer hide her face.

His voice is soft, his skin is golden, and his hair glows in the semi-darkness of the bedroom. "Shisui," he murmurs, lifting her chin and looking into her eyes. She cannot hide from him at all now. He reads her soul to its deepest level, and she begins shivering again. His hand glides from her chin to her cheek, caressing the now heated surface. He leans in and places a gentle kiss on her lips.

It is she who deepens it, opening her mouth to his more quickly than any proper woman - kunoichi, ninja, or civilian alike - should respond to a kiss (from someone not acceptable to her family). She hears herself moan as he follows her lead, and her stomach clenches once, twice. His hair brushing against her face is sensation she cannot bear (any more and she is sure she will faint. He fills her senses too easily, too quickly) and before she can realize it her hands are in his hair.

Gold is malleable, but his hair is even smoother than liquid gold. She fists the locks that should really be cut shorter and moans again. The hand on her back moves to the side of her hip, and he traces a kanji she cannot figure out onto her skin. She remembers to breathe, and pulls her mouth from his, pressing her forehead against his. She is breathing deeply, more so than him, as he lowers her eyes and watches her chest rise and fall.

His blue eyes meet her black ones for a moment, and then she feels his muscular arms around her toned back, holding her close as he lowers them to the mattress. The fire in her heart races throughout her body in anticipation, settling below her belly button and between her hips. This is not the first time they've come together, but with him it is always new.

Their torsos press together as they kiss again. She rolls her hips and brings her hands down to trail along his spine. He skims his hands onto her abdomen (she feels her stomach flutter and wonders if he does as well) and down into the dark hair over her center. She digs her fingers into his flesh once again, and he smirks into the kiss as his hand veers to the side and down the top of her thigh. It slides over the muscle and under her hips, pulling her into a more comfortable position for them both. He puts his arms on either side of their bodies, putting his weight on them so that they can untangle their legs.

He lowers himself, and she presses her inner thighs against his hips. Shisui's heart begins racing as she feels him so close, almost teasingly close that she mewls softly, her long fingers splaying across the muscles in his back. He draws one hand to her face, trails it from her temple down the length of her body to the lobes of skin he has passed through before. His lips return to her neck as he slides a finger past the folds.

Her body reacts to both actions - muscles clamping around his digit, hips rising and inviting it in further, head rolling to the side so he as more skin to mark. His eyelashes fluttered against the sensitive skin over the pulse in her neck, bringing her back to the reality of the moment. Shisui shook her head gently, willing the sensations to subside for even just a moment so that she could love her lover back. She didn't want her body being the only thing to respond - not with him. He would know the difference.

She brings her head back to center and prepares a spot near the base of his neck for a love bite. One of her hands followed the curve of his back and over his side, snaking between their stomachs to feel his defined abdominals, searching for -

The small scar she had given him during one of their first training sessions when they were ten, soon after becoming a Genin team. It was two-and-a-half centimeters long, three centimeters to the left of his belly button. She feels his abs tighten in response to her touch, and in return, he slides another finger into her, rubbing them against the smooth wall of sensitive muscle. She gasped and bit down on his shoulder. He hissed quietly.

They work each other into a continuous shortness of breath mouths reaching for every surface possible, tasting each other's sweat as they press on. He bends down, moist lips crossing over her collarbone and down between her breasts. He brushes his nose against her left nipple before covering it with his mouth. Her back arches, wanting him to take as much of her in as possible. He moves to her other breast afterwards, leaving a hickey its underside.

She moans a bit longer than she has all night, and he met her eyes, heady with desire. He slowly withdraws his fingers and holds himself above her just enough that the tips of her breasts brush against his chest at the rises of her breathing.

"Please," her voice is breathy, needy. _She hates how weak he makes her._ She hates how he holds himself together so well that she can't tell if she makes him weak, too.

He enters her, smoothly, with a grace and ownership of the action she's never known anyone else to have. He pauses a moment, letting them both get their bearings straight before moving against her. She rolls her hips to meet his, and the rhythm they create is established quickly. Slow and deep, long and hard. She feels her climax coming, and shakes her head (why must her hair stick to her face and back? She should cut, really, but she cannot part with it.), not wanting it come. He leans down further, lips rising from hers to her ear and whispers.

"Call for me, Shisui," a deeper thrust.

She opens her mouth to moan, and calls his name as she comes.


	6. If Only I Could Make You Mine

**Title:** "Numb"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin  
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage x Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme:** #26, if only I could make you mine  
**Rating:** T, just in case implications aren't allowed in anything lower.  
**Notes:** Part of this was actually the first draft of theme #30, but even though it wasn't working for that theme I had to save it and so here it is, fleshed out for another one. Title is taken from the song of the same name by Linkin Park. I listened to the piano version of it on repeat while finishing it, and I _never_ listen to music while writing. Dedicated to WolfCrossbreed on livejournal.  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

**"Numb"**

Shisui shut the door soundlessly and let her eyes adjust to the dark room. It was something so unlike him, she thought, especially given the hour. _'At least he lived in one of the quieter districts,'_ she sighed and made her way to his bedroom.

The light snoring she heard brought a small smile to her lips as she peeked into his room. His blanket was tangled around his legs, chest bare save for the white bandage wrapped around it. Shisui stepped closer to his bed, picking up the pillow that looked as if it had been thrown sometime during the night. She was close enough to see his eyes moving quickly behind his eyelids.

A bad dream, was it? She slowly reached down and slid one of her hands beneath the silky layer of bangs and touched his forehead. No fever, she calculated; he was simply reacting to the unpleasant images his subconscious was stringing together as he slept. (She wondered if his nightmares were anything like her own.)

She pulled her hand away, but he turned his head against her palm, and when her fingertips brushed his temple he lifted an arm to grab her wrist. "What time is it?" he mumbled, voice hoarse.

"Nearly noon. Are you all right?" she inquired.

He squeezed his eyes tightly before opening them, eyelids fluttering with the desire to stay closed. "Of what day?" he asked, equally groggily.

"Thursday - the second one of the month," she replied.

He brought his free hand up to wipe the sleep from his eyes, though he remained laying down. He blinked at the shade drawn over his window before turning to look at his partner. "Thanks. And sorry," he offered her, letting go of her wrist and kicking his blanket free from his legs.

Shisui sighed and tossed his pillow just above his head. He didn't flinch. (She felt her heart tighten a little bit.) "How much longer are you planning on moping? We've still got missions to complete."

"I'm not moping," he returned, looking back to his window.

"Don't be petulant," Shisui scolded, bending down to pick up his flak jacket and wiping the green material as if it was dirty.

She heard him groan as he finally sat up, holding his head. "I'm not in the mood, Shisui."

"Are you _hung over_?" she asked, surprised.

"No."

She let out her breath and draped his vest over the top of his dresser. "Still drunk?"

"No, Shisui. I'm just not in the mood for your vocabulary," he sighed in reply. He lifted his head enough to give her an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry; really, it's just... yesterday..."

"Yesterday is in the past, and while the outcome wasn't favorable for you, you had the opportunity to fight a strong opponent and can take the knowledge with you-"

"I _know_, Shisui. _I know_," his shoulders sagged.

Shisui bit her bottom lip in concern. In the past, she had never seen him take losing so poorly. "Then why are you acting like a child?" It came out more biting then she had meant it to, and she shook her head. The distance to his bed was covered quickly, and she sat on its edge, near enough to him that she could brush his blond hair off of his face.

"It's easier to make money as an ANBU," was all he told her, not meeting her eyes.

Rank had always mattered somewhat to him, she knew, but it was slightly easier to become an ANBU then it was to progress through the other ranks, because each village was allowed to pick their own ANBU. He could simply speak to the Third and reapply. She watched him for a moment and then gazed around his room. All in all, it was cleaner than it usually was. She noticed the brightly colored lamp shades had been changed to darker ones, and the implications came together. She removed her hand from his face and folded her hands in her lap.

Aware of the change in her movements and her sudden silence he leaned his forehead against hers. (She always was smarter than him, after all.) "Shisui, I _will_ become an ANBU, and when I do-"

She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her lips forcefully against his own, not wanting him to continue. If he finished that sentence, she'd have to give him an answer there, unable to let him hope that-

"No, Shisui, I need to say this, whether you want to hear it or not." He drew back and lifted his large calloused hands to hold her face so she couldn't look away. Scooting closer to her on the rumbled blue sheet Shisui felt her heartbeat quicken and wondered if he could hear it. She wanted to keep her eyes closed, she knew if she looked into his eyes she wouldn't be able to fight as she should (_'even my eyes are no match against his'_ she gave up in her mind as she slowly brought her black eyes to his impossibly blue eyes.

_'It's too late'_, she heard herself say, but she wasn't sure if it was out loud or to herself. But too late for what? Refusing? Accepting? With him, she could never tell.

"Shisui," his voice brought her back to the present. He swallowed and as if it was a reflex she did as well. He noticed and let out a soft chuckle. "We've never made anything clear, have we?"

"No," he voice was quiet.

"I'm going to change that once I become an ANBU. I decided that years ago."

"Years?"

He smiled bashfully and rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs. "More than you'd think, actually." There went another piece of her heart, never to be returned. "And only then do I want your reply. Promise me to actually think about it, Shisui. What _you_ want, and not what your family tells you to want." The words cut into her heart. He knew how she struggled with her clan's ideals more and more lately (ever since-) and she resented trusting him so much. "Promise me, Shisui," his voice was urgent.

"I will," she vowed quietly, letting herself fall forward against his chest to meet his lips once more. His hands traveled down her neck and arms, sliding onto her slim waist and bringing her closer to him. The cotton bandages around his torso hid his skin from her, but she could still feel the heat radiating from his body. Her long fingers splayed out across the strips, touching tenderly, knowing that his wounds would heal without too much scarring. They crept up his body and hooked over his shoulders, digging in as he pulled her down to lie beside him. His lips parted from hers and trailed down her throat, pressing against her pulse.

Her mind was racing as fast as her heart. She should stop, she should stop, she should stop - but she _wanted_ so desperately to not be who she was so that she could have him the way lovers should have each other. She buried her face into his hair, breathing in his scent. Everything about him was so familiar to her, his body on hers more natural to her than anything.

But there was no way. She had promised to think about her reply, but thinking about it wouldn't change her answer. The one she had decided on when she first realized he wasn't the idiot teammate he once was. She squeezed her eyes shut as tight as possible, but failed in keeping the tears from falling.

Her mind was made up, though, and she didn't protest as the day turned to dusk and she hadn't left his side. Not even the messenger bird tapping on his bedroom window (Sandaime had sent it, as Shisui had said, there _were_ missions to be done.) disturbed them.

---------------------------------

He was sleeping again, breathing through his nose as he rested his head on the curve of her spine, one hand nestled between her stomach and the sheets resting over her heart. As if he was trying to claim it. As if he already knew what she'd tell him.


	7. The Space Between Dream and Reality

**Title:** "Afternoon Tea"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin   
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage x Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme:** #06, the space between dream and reality  
**Rating:** K  
**Word Count:** 1,206  
**Notes:** Written for The Lady Lamb for her birthday. I'm sorry it's late, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. I apologize if Itachi is OOC to any/all degrees.  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

"**Afternoon Tea"**

The blond man sighed and scratched the back of his head as he once more turned down the wrong street. He knew the Uchiha were proud of their clan, but the way they decorated the Uchiha District left it confusing for outsiders to get through. _'Maybe that's the point,'_ he sighed, looking for a street sign. Aside from Shisui's house, he had never had any real reason to cross through the District, but now that he was Hokage he had certain duties to attend to.

Meeting with the Uchiha Head being one of the more important ones.

Shisui had promised to take him to her uncle's house, but when he arrived at her home a note was stuck in the doorjamb telling him she had gone ahead of him to help her aunt with something.

Two wrong turns and a helpful older woman later, the Yondaime Hokage had finally arrived at the Uchiha estate. Several minutes late (no thanks to Shisui). He swallowed the fear in his throat as he wondered how to announce his presence. He was worried Fugaku wouldn't meet with him because of his tardiness. "Nothing to lose," he muttered to himself and knocked strongly on the fence's door. He pushed it open after a moment and peeked onto the property. Shisui was walking towards him, eyes brightening after she registered it was him.

"You got lost, didn't you?" she asked him teasingly with a straight face.

"Slightly, yes. But at least I'm more familiar with your family's community," he replied slightly abashed.

"Uncle had to step out for some family business, but he should be back soon. Aunt Mikoto, Itachi, and I were just about to have some tea, join us while you wait," she tilted her head in the direction of the house and waited for him to join her.

The home was one of the older structures in the entire village, but it had been well cared for over the generations. Its interior was clean, the public areas traditionally decorated, the family's wealth underlying everything, but discreetly. Shisui's relatives were just inside; a few of the sliding doors open all of the way to let the afternoon breeze wander through the rooms. He and Shisui slid their sandals off and stepped into the room.

"Thank you for coming all this way," Mikoto spoke with a warm smile. She pressed one palm against the low table to stand.

"It's my pleasure," the Hokage returned bowing. "Please do not trouble yourself to stand. Your due date is near?" he inquired sitting on the seat beside Shisui. He glanced at the young boy sitting between the two women. He was eying the blond with partially narrowed eyes, face otherwise blank of expression.

Mikoto laughed softly and laid one hand on her son's jet black head and the other on her large stomach. "At the end of the month. Itachi's looking forward to being a big brother, isn't that right?"

The boy in question nodded his head once, still watching the Hokage. Shisui noticed and poked him above his ear. "I bet you want a little sister, don't you? So you can protect her."

Itachi drew his brows together and finally drew his attention away from the visitor. "She'd be an Uchiha; she wouldn't need to be protected."

This caused Mikoto and Shisui to laugh. Rumpling his hair Shisui told him, "She won't always be able to defend herself, though, Itachi. Babies need to be taken care of quite often when they're first born."

If the fact alarmed the boy, he didn't show it. Shisui smoothed his hair and picked up her tea cup.

"Oh, have you been reading up on child care, Shisui? Planning for your own-"

Shisui began coughing into her cup, slapping her hand against her chest to clear her throat. The Yondaime felt his ears heat up as he tried to hide his own blush by taking a sip of his tea before it cooled. Mikoto didn't bother hiding her sly grin as she watched her niece and village leader react to her teasing. "It's perfectly natural you two. After all, you've spent nearly every day of most of your lives together. And don't think that others haven't noticed the way you look at each other sometimes."

"Aunt Mikoto-"

"Lady Uchiha-"

Mikoto shook her head and waved one of her hands in front of herself dismissingly. "It's about time you two got married and started a family. You're the Hokage now, after all-"

"But he's not an Uchiha," Itachi's young voice asserted. His eyes had narrowed even more at the man he now considered unwelcome.

The three adults instantly quieted, unsure of what to tell the boy. Telling him that didn't matter was pointless. At five years old he was already wise beyond his years. He knew there were certain things the clan members did and didn't do. But could they give him reason to think otherwise? The young Hokage looked to Shisui, wondering what was going through her mind as she stared at the gleaming surface of the table.

"It's awfully quiet in here," a deep voice commented, jarring the adults from their thoughts.

"Welcome home, Fugaku," Mikoto rose slowly, walking over to place a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Hello, Uncle," Shisui nodded. Itachi watched his father with an expression the Hokage didn't understand.

"Lord Hokage, I'm sorry to have been out when you arrived," the older man bowed.

"I understand how as the head of your family your voice is important in certain matters," the blond rose and bowed. "You have nothing to apologize for."

Fugaku eyed him, inspecting, before turning to his wife. "Please bring some tea into my study. The Hokage and I will speak in there." He turned and the Yondaime followed him, glancing once more at Shisui before leaving the room. Mikoto left the room after them to prepare the tea, leaving Shisui alone with her cousin.

"Shisui?" he asked after being sure no one was nearby in the hall.

"Yes, Itachi?" she asked, looking up from the table into black eyes like her own.

"Do you want to have a family with him?" The curiosity in his voice was mixed with a hint of something else. Shisui looked at him and tried to place her finger on it. Jealousy? Sorrow?

She wrapped her hands around the tea cup and sighed. "I'm always honest with you, aren't I, Itachi?"

He nodded.

"Then I won't lie to you now. I care deeply for him, but I don't think I could ever have a family with him."

"Why?" he asked, scooting closer to her.

She bit her bottom lip. "Just as your father cares about our family, and is always taking care of it, the Hokage cares for and loves everyone in the village. He can't pick one person to care for more than any other. We may be in the Uchiha clan under the guidance of your father, but we're part of Konoha's family, too, and the Hokage is the village's father."

Itachi placed his small hands on hers. "But which family is more important to you?"

Shisui closed her eyes and took a deep breath, asking herself that question yet again.


	8. Say Ahh

**Title:** "New Threads"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin   
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage x Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme No.:** #18, "say ahh"  
**Rating:** K  
**Word Count:** 464  
**Notes:** A touch of crack because Yondy knows he's hot. The favor Yondy calls in is in another chapter that I have to do the final edits on and will have up soon. Most likely disjointed since I came up with this when I was over-tired around 12:45 AM last night.  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

"**New Threads"**

Shisui stared at the curry in front of her and then glanced at plate belonging to the grey-haired boy beside her. He hadn't touched his food either. He was too similar to the Uchiha in many regards, and the eye that had been gifted to him by her late cousin only made the similar qualities stand out more.

He was strong, and after the day of training they had spent together (her former teammate had called in a favor - a _favor_, not an order - to her and how could she refuse?) with her teaching him how to better handle the Sharingan and him being a perfect student, he told her his teacher had invited the two of them over for supper. (She knew she could not refuse this invitation, either. It had been too long since they had last seen each other, the memory of their parting kiss still linger on her lips as she remembered the passionate embrace.)

She sighed and picked up a pickle with no intention of eating it. The blond idiot had been all smiles when she and Kakashi had arrived weary and worn and disappeared shortly after serving them and hadn't been seen since. Shisui glanced to the clock and put her spoon down. Just as she opened her mouth to speak their host returned with a flourish.

He was wearing his trademark grin and stood with his back to his guests, watching them over his right shoulder. Shisui read the red text lining his back and closed her eyes. She should have known this was coming.

"What do you think? Looks good, wouldn't you say? An?" The Yondaime Hokage turned and lifted the ends of the new garment he had special-ordered and sat down beside his female friend. "You like it a lot, don't you?"

Shisui ignored him and began eating her food before it grew any colder. _Idiot_.

"Kakashi, what do you think?" he asked the boy, his voice clearly sounding the desire for approval.

"Don't you think it's a bit too much, sensei?" The boy's brows knit together slightly as he tried to see if there was a lesson to be learned.

The Hokage sighed and lifted his spoon sadly. "Well, everyone _else_ liked it. The women in the shop were whispering how I'm the hottest Hokage to ever Hokage after I tried it on to make sure it fit." He slid his eyes over to meet Shisui's to gauge her reaction.

His blue met her red and black.

He laughed inwardly as he winked at her, digging into the food he had cooked. Yes, the coat had been a good idea. It seemed like Shisui would be spending more time near him when she wasn't away on missions.


	9. The Sound of Waves

**Title:** "Beyond the Sea"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin   
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage x Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Theme No.:** #29, the sound of waves  
**Rating:** K  
**Word Count:** 843  
**Notes:** The result of my _Nodame Cantabile_ kick is YonShi fic instead of anything related to NC. Go figure. (Further proof of how much I love Shisui in Oshima High.) AU, so Yondaime is his name and not his title. Thanks goes to Frank Sinatra for the inspiration for this one-shot. Tense shifts all over the place, so beware.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

The windows are opened as wide as possible and the French doors that line the sea-facing side of their home are spread so that even more of the scent of salt and the ocean breeze can waft through the open floor plan. Yondaime breathes it all in deeply, feeling refreshed with each breath.

They're so close to the ocean that he matches the rise and fall of his chest to the sound of the waves crashing along the sand a few shades darker than his hair. He's never been so at peace before, and he is glad that Shisui twisted his arm into coming. It was good for the both of them, this vacation.

He sighed and yawned silently, scratching his stomach through the thin linen of his button-down shirt. It was the perfect setting for a nap, he decided, stretching his long frame across the large sofa, his head resting on one of the arms. He wasn't sure when Shisui would be back (grocery shopping always took her longer than most people) and once she returned he'd be busy preparing their supper so now was the best chance he'd get.

He closed his eyes though the soft light of the mid-afternoon sun shone down on him through the uncovered windows and doors. Its warmth gently caressed him as the continuous fall of waves on wet sand lulled him to sleep.

He dreamt of the things he and Shisui had done earlier in the week. The fireworks display near the boardwalk, browsing the antique shops that filled the downtown markets, and all of their time spent on the beach.

Shisui had never been without her parasol and layers of the strongest sunscreen possible. He had teased her each day about -

"What's the point in coming to the shore if you don't like the beach?"

"You love it here."

- and he would always take one or both her hands (if he was not already holding one or both) and bring them to his lips.

They strolled along the shore at dawn, morning, afternoon, evening, sunset, and night. It was always the same place but never the same experience. He watched it all with wonder as Shisui watched him recharge (that was how she recharged, but she didn't need to come to the beach to do so, anytime she saw him she felt energy speed through her veins). He was so childlike despite his age, and his soft boyish face had changed only enough to make him look forever young. (But forever is an inconstant way to judge things.)

He always walked between her and the water, holding her close (after a week of being here she didn't shake as badly when she neared the salty water) and speaking softly to her, just enough to be heard over the waves. If he could, he'd live on the beach for the rest of his life he told her, and he knew that she would follow despite her own dislike of such a bright and lighthearted environment. It was a collar he felt sorry for putting around her, and one of the reasons he came to this spot less often since their relationship had turned so serious.

He dreamed of the previous night, of them dancing slowly in place (really more just swaying back and forth like nervous junior high students at their first dance) holding each other close under the strings of white Christmas lights and Chinese lanterns strung about the open dance floor of the cafe they had eaten at.

It was the gently strain of the piano from the other side of the room that drew him from his sleep, the same tune as the night before filling his senses. He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to prove her instincts right of his wakefulness, enjoying Shisui's delicate playing. It had been too long since he had heard her play (she had sent him a look when they arrived to the beach house and noticed the piano that had never been there before) so he had hoped that she would at least once on this trip.

She played the last verse, slowing the tempo and moving to the high notes to add fragility to the unsung words of the last three lines of the song. Finished, he felt her eyes upon him and he could pretend no more. He pushed himself off of the soft cushions and greeted her with a kiss, bending down to brush his lips along hers since she was still seated on the small black bench. "Keep playing, I'll call you when I'm done cooking."

She knew he meant for her to play for herself and began once more, closing her eyes as she felt herself growing lost in the music. Rachmaninoff's complicated and heavy composition sounded through their small vacation home, oddly suited to the unblocked sunset, the waves along the beach and the sounds of supper being prepared taking the place of the rest of the orchestra.

Yes, it was good for the both of them, this vacation.


	10. Good Night

**Title:** "Siúil a Rúin"  
**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin   
**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui  
**Fandom:** _Naruto_  
**Theme No.:** #24, good night  
**Rating:** K  
**Word Count:** 1,000  
**Notes:** Title taken from a traditional Irish song, translates from Gaelic to "Go My Love". It's a song I associate very much with this pairing (particularly the version performed in _The Lord of the Dance_. Spoilers for _Naruto_ chapter 367.  
**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

Shisui sat atop the carved head of the Sandaime Hokage as she watched the stream of refugees entering the village. The war had been over for a little over a day, but those that had been traveling had come at last to their goal and were hesitant to turn back and return to where they had come from. Konoha, they said, was the safest place for them. They had the Golden Flash! They had escaped with the least damage to their forces, as well. Yes, Konoha would be their new home.

Shisui rolled the cup between her hands as she watched. Some were civilians whose towns or homes had been destroyed by ninja, others were civilians who had been saved by ninja. The ninja who came to make Konoha their home had fought beside Konoha's shinobi and forged a bond deeper than thought possible. There was talk of the two villages joining together - the lesser force merging into Konoha's.

Shisui was tired of war.

She looked down into the clear liquid of her cup and into her reflection. She hadn't gotten much sleep lately, and with the death count still rising she wasn't sure when the next time she'd get a moment like this to herself would be. She wondered why she was sitting here in the deepening night instead of sleeping, but knew it was because she couldn't return to the Uchiha District. Not tonight. Obito's father had fallen in the final battle. She didn't want to risk bumping into her cousin, heavy with her second child that would not know its father or older brother.

She raised the cup to the village below. "To you." Then she threw her head back and gulped down the last bit of warm sake. (It was not a time for tea.) Her hand faltered as she set the cup down beside her. The ringing of laughter startled her.

She'd recognize his voice anywhere. She closed her eyes and smiled faintly. He was laughing now because he had already shed his tears in private. When another voice joined his in amusement she opened her eyes and saw who he was walking with. The kunoichi with red hair. Shisui shook her head at the little prick she felt on her heart. _'No good,'_ she thought. _'It's no good feeling this way, Shisui.'_

She forced herself to look away, using more willpower than she would have liked. The laughter and the pair's voices died away a few minutes later, and she glanced down to where she had last heard them. He was there, watching her intently. Shisui tilted her head back, signaling for him to join her.

He was beside her instantly thanks to the kunai he had given her that she kept attached to her thigh. "I'd toast the man of the hour, but I've finished my sake."

He raised a brow at her and picked up the cup, sniffing it. "It's rare of you drink sake, Shisui. What's wrong?" His voice was so damned soft and kind. Where was the man of the battlefield?

"Nothing has to be wrong for Tsunade-sama to drink," she offered.

"You're not Tsunade," he returned quickly.

"Are the rumors true?" she bit her lip as soon as the question left her mouth. She'd remember not to drink sake for a long time.

He shifted (uncomfortably?) and continued holding the cup. "If you mean the consolidation of Konoha's ninja with those of the former Spiral country, then yes. They're quite true. They're small in number, but are a welcome addition to our troops. Many see the collapse of their nation and village as a reason to fight for ou-"

"I meant the rumors about you and Uzumaki."

A moment of silence passed between the blond man and the ebony woman. In all their years together few awkward moments such as this one passed between them.

"I-"

"Because if they are, it's a smart move," she interrupted him. "It makes the merge even stronger. They've a reason to stay and fight with us if their strongest kunoichi marries the next in line for the Hokage title." She turned to face him, a small attempt at a teasing grin on her lips. "Your kids'll be monsters with all they'll inherit from you."

He watched her, expression serious. "You're serious? You're not..." he tried to search for the right word. Shisui was so very unlike all the other women he knew, finding words to describe her was always difficult, and had been ever since they were small. "You're okay with it, if it is true?"

Shisui shook her head in the gentle breeze. "We went into this... agreement... knowing that nothing lasting would become of it. I've no reason to have a claim on you. And now that times have changed, that the village and our lives have changed, it seems like the best thing to do is give a clear ending to what had a hazy beginning."

He shook his head and pulled in his legs to look at her full-on. "It may have started as something light, but you know just as well as I do that it became something serious, worth fight-"

He was silenced as her mouth met his for a searing kiss. Her hands were on his face, in his hair; her mouth open to his, letting him take his fill as she took hers. The ceramic cup spilled from his hands, falling down along the carved surface. He thought he heard a crack as it slammed against the rock, but he wasn't certain.

She slowly drew away from him, her hands lingering on his person just as his stayed around her waist. She met his eyes, black to blue, and he wondered if he was seeing things, or if those really were tears welling. He opened his mouth to speak, but she pressed a finger to his lips (still warm from the kiss).

"Good night, Minato." And then she was gone.

He knew she meant good-bye."


	11. Cradle

**Title:** "Wedding Gifts"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom** _Naruto_

**Theme No.:** #22, cradle

**Rating:** T for slight language and violence

**Word Count:** 1404

**Notes:** Spoilers for _Naruto_ chapter 367. For Hyorin/Fujiwara-san.

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

"Wedding Gifts"

When it rains, it pours.

Shisui lifted her face to the jet black sky and let the fat drops pound into her white skin. She had left her house without any rain gear, but that wasn't unusual for her. No one in her family understood her love with the rain. It must have come from her mother's line the Uchiha gossips whispered in her presence, no longer bothering to hide their intentions from her.

She closed her eyes and let the rain cover her face, blocking the knowledge of if she was crying or not. Denial? Quite possibly, but she'd be the last to admit it. The sounds of merriment floated by her ears and she looked towards the direction it came from, the place she was debating entering. Warm light shone out from the windows and she shifted the well-wrapped package in her arms. They were dancing, drinking, celebrating.

And deep inside of her soul something was crumbling. She turned and walked up the hill to the door she had never had the need to knock on until recently. Her steps were sure even against the slick road and she reached a hand to ring the bell. It opened without her needing to.

"Uchiha-san!" Rin greeted warmly, cheeks rosy with excitement and maybe a few sips of liquor. "Sensei was hoping you'd show up, even put me on window duty so someone could greet you and lure you in, as he told me. He was sorry to hear you were assigned a mission on such short notice. Oh, look at my manners, please, come in. There's still plenty of time left to..." her voice trailed as Shisui made no sign of moving. "Uchiha-san?"

"I'm sorry, Rin. I can't stay. I simply wanted to drop off my wedding gift." Minato's laughter rang through the house though he wasn't in sight. The vestibule kept most of the party out of view. "Would you please place this with the other gifts? And wish him and Uzumaki-san congratulations for me." Without waiting for Rin's reply Shisui placed the gift on floor Rin had left free for her to step on. "Good night, Rin." And with that she turned down the street, but rather than return to her home, she walked to the memorial. She went there to talk to Obito every so often (though not as often as Kakashi).

Halfway there she heard him and squeezed her eyes shut, swallowing before turning around. She was so used to wearing the kunai he had given her that she had forgotten to take it off and return it to him. Her heart leapt at the sight of him, the heavy rain soaking his hair and flattening it. Water dripped from the uneven edges of dulled gold and streamed down his skin. He hadn't put on a cape.

"Stupid, you want to catch pneumonia on your wedding night?" she asked, keeping her voice level but raising it over the storm.

"Why didn't you stay?" he called, not coming closer. At least he knew that much.

"It's late and I'm tired."

"Then why aren't you heading home?"

"I wanted to talk to Obito." She could see his pained expression through the dim streetlight. "I wanted to tell him you were finally married. You know well enough he enjoyed teasing you about not getting any younger."

He watched her smile. It was beautiful. He nodded. "I visited him before the ceremony."

An awkward silence passed between them, the rain keeping them from thinking too deeply.

"I-"

"Why did you accept the mission this morning, Shisui?" he asked, throat tightening.

She raised her chin and shivered at the cold rain snaking its way down her chest. "An Uchiha was needed and speed was important. I'm the fastest in the Clan so it had to be me."

"You weren't allowed to ask someone else to go?"

"You know how it is, Minato. The best qualified takes the job if they're available."

"You had plans, though." He took a step forward, leaving the ring of light.

"You know how we Uchiha are."

"You've never liked being one of them."

The sureness in his voice was like a slap across her face. "I am what I am." She said it as if apologizing to him, bowing and quickly walking away.

He was in front of her in an instant, hands gripping her shoulders. "Why did you give me that?"

So he had opened it before chasing after her. "They say that rain on your wedding day means you'll have many children."

"You know that's not what I meant. Why _that_ cradle?" He shook her.

She fought back the thickness growing in her throat. "I'm not having any children of my own, and it came from my mother's family so it isn't Uchiha property, so to speak. Obito's dead and there's no one else in the family I wish to give it to, even if they'd accept it. You'll need one soon, if old wives' tales are true. It's the practical thing to do."

"Shisui-"

"That's all there is to it, Minato. You should return to your wife and great dried up and warm. It wouldn't be fair to her to be sick on your wedding night."

"Shisui, listen-"

"Oh, and here, before I forget. You haven't given her one of these yet, have you?" She bent over and removed the special kunai in its holster from her thigh and held it out to him. "Out of anyone she's the one who should wear this now."

He dropped his hands and looked at the leather in her hands. She was returning his heart to him. "I gave it to you." His voice was flat.

"And now I'm giving it to Kushina! She's your wife, Minato!" Her throat was dry.

"I know who and what she is, Shisui!" He had raised his to her before on missions and during petty fights when they were younger, but this was the first time he had truly yelled at her. He swept the holster out of her hand and grabbed it, pulling her against him. "But I can't forget you and the years we've spent together." He only held her to him with one arm, she could break free, she could-

He felt her move against him and used his free hand to clamp over her eyes. She clawed at him even as his lips fought to stay on hers. He held her tight, hand secure on her face as his arm wrapped around the back of her head. She was screaming in her head, cursing him, cursing her fate. It was fierce and frightening.

And wrong.

She slammed her right heel onto the top of his left foot as hard as she could. He jerked back from her gasping and unprepared for the crack of the back of her hand across his cheek. She was breathing heavily, eyes red and black in the darkness.

He was driving the Rasengan into her chest before he realized it, the heat of her still flowing (gushing) blood splattering onto his hand, neck, face, and clothing. He could hear her organs as they ripped apart, could feel her body shutting down as he stayed there, hovering over her body as it bled out onto the ground. Her midnight eyes lost their sheen. The rain washed away the blood that had spilled from her mouth. She wasn't breathing any longer.

He screamed out into the night, not caring who he woke. He screamed and cried and cursed and fumbled for one of her weapons.

Kakashi grabbed his shoulder and dug the small nub of a knife into the bare flesh above his teacher's ANBU tattoo. He stepped back as his teacher emptied his stomach over the spot where Shisui's body had laid in the genjutsu. He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and stumbled to where the kunai had landed. Kakashi reached out to steady him but he held up a hand, refusing to meet his student's eye. "I'm fine, Kakashi. I'll be fine."

The boy said nothing as he followed his teacher through the streets back to his house. The guests had left and Kushina was waiting for them at the door with thick towels and a concerned expression. She saw the holster her husband gripped tightly in his left hand and her heart felt no lighter knowing what Shisui had relinquished.


	12. Red

**Title:** "Orphans of War"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Kamikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

**Theme:** #19, red

**Rating:** T

**Word Count:** 1,429

**Notes:** For Denwa's birthday. I apologize for its lateness, but I kept re-writing it. ;

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

"**Orphans of War"**

Shisui was on guard duty when they returned. Normally the Uchiha would raises their noses at the job, but events in the past few days had put the entire village on edge. The Whirlpool village had been attacked and completely razed. Rescue efforts had been running non-stop, but the survivors were few; and of those that had been found, most would not make it to the end of the week.

The ones who had attacked the village were still unknown, though it was clear they had planned the attack carefully and at length. Shisui tried to pretend that she wasn't concerned for Minato's welfare. She knew he could handle himself. But she didn't like being left behind.

"The last party has returned," the stoic voice of one of the Hyuuga Main House members announced. Shisui turned her gaze to the direction he was watching and signaled a few Chuunin to open the doors. He was easy to spot – the shock of bright yellow hair amongst the green and browns of the forest. Equally noticeable was what he carried in his arms.

The young woman was dirty and heavily bandaged, though not well enough. Minato held her with his arms under her knees and across her back, holding her tightly against his chest. Hair a deep red that Shisui knew instinctively matched the red in the fan she wore upon her back. And one small pale hand curled at the base of Minato's neck, as if it had been wrapped around the chiseled column but had dropped due to unconsciousness.

It was a few minutes before she reached him amongst the bustle of his squad's arrival. Sandaime had come down from the tower despite his busy schedule and was speaking in hushed tones with the ANBU captain. Both kept giving Minato sidelong glances, Shisui noticed, and the knot in her stomach was growing each minute she could not spend alone with him. Two medics had rushed over from the hospital to take care of the team and the woman – the last shinobi of her village.

Upon closer inspection Shisui recognized the face beneath the blood and ashes. She swallowed and crouched down to Minato's level. Yes, it was her. Kushina was known well enough for her strength and unusual fighting style, but Shisui had never desired to know her personally. She lifted a damp cloth and brushed it against her companion's forehead, wiping the sweat and grime from the mission away. His attention focused to her for a brief moment – eyes slightly glazed from tiredness, but wide with the temporary high of the soldier pills he took. And then he turned back to the woman.

The medics were attempting to pull her from his arms, but she had hooked her other hand into his vest and had a strong grip on him. "It's alright, I'll go to the hospital with her," Minato gave in, worried that forcing her to free him would only do more damage. The group surrounding him rose together. Shisui put a hand on his elbow and he turned to her. "You've been awake a long time, Shisui," he spoke softly (adjusting his hold on Kushina – holding her closer-), finally taking a moment to look at her, disregarding his own weariness as usual. "Get some rest, I'll be back home in a few minutes." And then he was on his way to the hospital.

A few minutes was more like several hours. Shisui had finished her required hours of guard duty and had headed straight to Minato's humble apartment. She changed into a pair of worn out sweats that she kept in the bottom drawer of his dresser and put the kettle on to make tea. Sleep began creeping up on her, but she refused to fall victim to the alluring waves. She sat at his small kitchen table and waited, preparing and re-preparing him a fresh cup of tea as soon as the previous cooled to lukewarm.

Around twenty minutes after two in the morning he stumbled in and fell onto his couch. Shisui lifted his cup and brought it out to the living room. He was face-down on the cushion, spread across the entire surface. His ANBU mask was still hanging in his hand over the edge of the couch. Without a word she worked his sandals off and wrapped her arms around his chest, unfastening the stained vest. He woke from his stupor enough to sit up and follow her quiet directions on how to move his limbs. She pressed the tea into his hands and went to run a towel under warm water, returning and washing more of the physical results of his labor from his face, neck, and hands. When he had finished the tea she helped him peel his navy turtleneck off and ran the cloth along his torso.

As she brushed over an old scar he leaned against her shoulder. His breath was hot. Shisui draped the towel on the coffee table and stroked her fingers through his hair. The contact stirred something within him and he drew her close, pulling her down to the couch and spooning her to his chest. She could feel his heart racing against her shoulder blades and caressed his hands, willing him to speak when he was ready.

"Kushina's the last of them," Minato spoke at length, lips brushing against the back of her head. "In total twenty-four were brought back, and of them only a little over a dozen remain."

"Not enough to sustain a shinobi village," she murmured.

He shook his head. "They'll be given the option of integration with Konoha or granted refugee status and can live as citizens within our village."

"How many do you think will integrate?"

"I don't know. It depends on the extent of their injuries. Whirlpool never had any fantastic bloodlines to start with, they depended on skill, but a shinobi needs to have the majority of their body whole. Missing limbs and appendages make you more of a risk. Many of them will probably retire as civilians."

Silence descended once more, and she thought he had fallen asleep when he kissed the crest of her ear. He leaned his head against hers, lips brushing against her temple. "I've been made a captain."

Shisui's heart skipped a beat. She wiggled and turned to her other side, hands cupping her lover's face. "Congratulations," She arched up to kiss him, but it was no more than a brushing of their lips due to his drawing back. She drew her thin brows together and searched his face. "What's wrong?"

"None of the survivors are related to each other."

That hadn't been what she was expecting. "They have each other."

"They have us, Konoha, too."

Her hands were cool against his chest. "What's wrong, Minato?"

He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers. She wanted to pull back as he had done, but the thoughts racing in her mind kept her from doing so. "She didn't want to let go of me. Kept screaming every time I made to leave until one of the doctor's held her down long enough to give her a tranquilizer."

"It is... hard to lose someone you love." Obito had been dead for less than a year, the loss of his life still a tender ache she dared not speak about. "Even harder still to lose your entire family."

"She's a few years younger than us..."

"She's a grown adult. A strong fighter. She will heal." Her fingers closed in toward her palms.

"She's an orphan, Shisui. Just like me," he opened his eyes and stared into her black ones. "It was hard to leave her, even after the tranquilizer."

For the third time since he had returned she felt her breath catch. This time it shook her to the core. Ominous words. Feeling the change in her posture, Minato propped himself up to one elbow. "Shisui?"

So it had finally come. The bird who would be free to soar with her dearest Minato into adventures she could not behind the gilded bars of the Uchiha family. She had known this day would come, had reminded him of it so often even when he protested otherwise. She wondered if he even knew that this was the breaking point. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I should return home before father realizes I'm not home."

"Stay." His calloused fingers traced along the veins on the underside of her arm, raising goosebumps.

And for the last time, she did.


	13. Excessive Chain

**Title:** "Take Warning"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Kamikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

**Theme:** #13, excessive chain

**Rating:** T

**Word Count:** 970

**Notes:** For wolfcrossbreed. Just because. ♥& Onii-chan loves you, otouto!

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

**"Take Warning"**

_**Excessive**_, adjective – more than is desirable; unrestrained, especially with regard to feelings

_**Chain**_, figurative – a force or factor that restricts someone

Visitors to the Fire nation always comment on the year-round summery weather. Never too cold, never too hot. And the nights, they always sigh... the balmy nights when the crickets sing.

It was one such night in early October, Shisui noticed as she climbed the worn steps she had climbed for so many years. But not recently. There was a fresh coat of paint on the door, the small little entryway swept just that morning. She knocked twice and held her hands clasped before her.

"One moment, please!" a jovial voice called from the other side. Heavy footfalls preceded the unlatching of the door lock and the easy swing of the door. Large green eyes grew even wider. "Uchiha-san!" Shisui nodded in greeting. "Minato's still at the Tower, if you were looking for him."

"Thank you, I know. There is something I need to speak to him about, off the record."

"You can't do that there?" she asked, sliding a hand over the large bulge of late pregnancy. _'Leave us alone.'_

Shisui rose to her full height, standing several inches above Kushina. "I cannot."

The redhead's throat tightened, but she knew enough to step down from the argument and opened the door for Shisui to step inside.

It was very much the same as it always had been. Clean and orderly, but the faint warmth it had always contained has burst over and made it into a home. Shisui sat hesitantly on the edge of a new chair and glanced at her hostess. "If I interrupted you, please go back to what you were doing. I know my visit is sudden, you needn't set yourself behind schedule due to my rudeness."

Kushina smiled hesitantly, and her offer for refreshment was politely refused. Shisui peeked at the clock sitting above the small television (next to a picture of Minato and Kushina on their wedding day and his former Genin Team. It used to be a picture of Team Jiraiya beside the one of his own team.), only a few minutes before he'd be home.

The sound of the lock once more being undone made her rise, though she stayed in the living room. Kushina was busy cooking and didn't hear her husband return. He stopped in the doorway, frozen. The surprise at seeing her written clearly on his face. "Shisui..."

She swallowed and rubbed her palms against the thick knit of her pants. "I have something I need to tell you." Her voice was level, but held a note of danger.

He nodded and motioned for her to follow him to the room that was in the process of becoming the nursery. The overhead light had been removed for its replacement, so one small bedside lamp on a table near the cradle was all there was to provide light. The lampshade was green, casting an eerie glow along the soft blue walls.

"Is everything alright, Shisui?" Minato asked softly, brows creased in concern.

"Your wife and child are in danger," she replied, fingers brushing over the dark wood of a changing table.

He tensed, hands folding in before he unclenched them. "How do you know this?"

"I cannot say. But they are not the only ones in danger. Those you have sworn to protect, the entire village may be in grave danger." She held her hand up to stop him from speaking. "You were going to ask 'why should I trust you?', weren't you? Believe me, Minato, please. I've never lied to you before. I haven't even spoken to you in private since you've been married. I'm telling you this because..." She closed her eyes, waiting for the pressure in her throat to pass. He stepped closer and laid a hand on her upper arm.

"I want her to be safe. For you. Minato, you must send her away."

"Why? What's going on?" He curled his fingers into her bare flesh. She jerked her head up and narrowed her eyes.

"Something big. Something that even I don't know all about."

"Stop speaking in riddles."

"I _can't_!" she hissed. Shisui pulled her arm free and walked to the large window that overlooked the village. "I will try to persuade them to go further away from the village beforehand, but even that may not be enough." She turned her face to him, body silhouetted in the moonlight, face shadowed. "Be prepared, Minato."

"Are the Uchiha revolting?"

"That depends on whom you ask, don't you think?"

"What will happen if they find out you warned me?"

She smiled sadly and watched her reflection. "I'm breaking the rules, you know what happens to those who do so."

He closed his eyes. "But you still came?"

"The funny thing about emotions is that they can still be generated in certain regards even when you wish that they wouldn't. I'm bound by my word to my family, but my heart stopped being theirs long ago."

She pushed her hand away from the window sill and headed to the door. She paused as she passed him, lifting a hand to his shoulder. "Whatever may happen, I swear I'll do whatever I can to make it right."

He placed his hand over hers before she could leave. "Be careful," he whispered and released her. The door opened and closed, leaving him alone in his soon-to-be son's room. Kushina entered a few minutes later and wrapped her arms around him, leaning forward to keep the pressing of her stomach to a minimum. He folded his hands over her small arms and sighed.

"Come on, supper is ready."

He drew her arms down and held her face in his hands, kissing her gently. "I would give my life for you and our son."

Kushina blinked and rose to the balls of her feet. "And so would I."


	14. Gardenia

**Title:** "So It Goes"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

**Theme:** #11, gardenia

**Rating:** T, just in case.

**Word Count:** 352

**Notes:** For theladylamb. She knows why. Also, since the way the theme is included in the fic may not be obvious: I associate the scent of jasmine with Shisui thanks to Hyorin and there is a species of gardenia that is a jasmine, so I'm using a lesser known type of gardenia for the theme.

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

**"So It Goes"**

The scent of jasmine fills the room and slowly stirs him awake. He blinks quickly and sees Shisui peeling off her shirt, black hair falling like rain over her smooth white shoulders. The moon and stars peek through the open curtains as the breeze continues to cool the summer night. She slides into place beside him, pressing her fingers to his lips. He presses against them, kissing their smooth tips, bringing an arm up to wrap around her waist. Her fingers twine themselves in his hair as her aristocratic fingers trail from his mouth down his neck to his bare chest, their path erratic but sensual. He feels his need growing and pulls her down over himself, leaning towards her for a kiss.

She is smiling as if there is a secret she knows that he does not, eyes closed to her private amusement. Their lips meet, and it is as if she burns with the fire her clan favors so much. Heat flows through her to him, raising his hair and sending a jolt down his spine. He wants more, but she draws back, laughing quietly. She opens her eyes and grins at him.

The crimson red of her Sharingan is a red-orange, the circular design replaced with a vulpine slit.

Minato goes still and the dream (illusion? Has he been sleeping in this place?) quickly flickers away as if the wind that had been in it carries it away. The scent of jasmine lingers.

Kyuubi removes himself from Minato's person, cackling loudly, voice echoing in the large, dank cell within the recesses of his son's consciousness. Minato's ears ring and he wants to hold his hands over his ears, but he will not. The Kyuubi is howling his glee, eyes welling with tears from his amusement. "Oh, your face! That expression!" He reaches out an arm and feathers the back of a clawed finger along Minato's cheek. Minato does not flinch, meeting the demon's eyes unblinkingly. "So it goes," he says, voice dripping with unveiled hate at the man who has entrapped him.

"So it goes," Minato whispers back firmly.


	15. Our Distance and That Person

**Title:** "Funeral Pyre"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

**Theme:** #04, our distance and that person

**Rating:** K

**Word Count:** 465

**Notes:** For theladylamb. She knows why.

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

**"Funeral Pyre"**

His mother's voice was gentle, quickly following the two taps upon his bedroom door. "Minato, darling? Shisui's here."

Minato looked up as his mother opened the door and let Shisui in. The young girl didn't look too different in the standard funeral clothing than she did in her normal attire. He had never thought about that before, but it bothered him immensely now that he noticed. Rather than rising and heading out, he turned back to stare out his window.

"We'll be late, if we don't leave soon," she spoke after a few minutes. She was in the same place by his door. That bothered him, too. Because Sanosuke wasn't one to remain still and silent. He had always been so full of life. And now-

"Do you care?" he asked softly.

"I thought you would," she replied easily. He shrugged. "Your mother's been worried about you."

"And how is Sano's mom?"

"Peas and carrots."

He turned to throw her a confused look. "What?"

"Peas and carrots. The two are completely different. Just like your mother and Sanosuke's."

He watched her silently, wishing she'd move, wishing black didn't look so appealing against her smooth white skin. The long hand of his clock jumped forward. "Will we really be late?" he asked.

"Not if we run," she answered.

Minato pushed himself off of his bed and walked over to her, sliding his palm against hers, lacing his fingers through hers. "I miss him."

"That's normal, Minato. He was a comrade."

"It feels wrong without him around. It's always been the three of us and sensei."

"Is that why you refused to see us?" There was no accusation in her voice, but he felt like his heart was being pricked with needles. He nodded slowly. "And if something had happened to him or myself in the meanwhile, what would you have done?"

"I-" he started, but was unable to finish. The mere thought of losing Shisui and Jiraiya so soon after Sano, or even the possibility of losing them at all (which was odd, due to how intimately he knew death worked) grpped him so tightly in fear.

"That's why people must come together when one dies, Minato. There is always a legacy left behind, and it should be celebrated."

Minato lowered his head in shame, resting against her shoulder. Shisui leaned over and kissed his temple, hidden behind a veil of golden hair. "Come on, sensei's downstairs."

They exited his room and somberly walked to the staircase. Shisui paused at the top and examined him.

"I'm okay now. Really," Minato offered.

"Black does not become you."

Uncertain of what to say, Minato just watched her descend ahead of him. _'And what does it mean that it becomes you?'_ he wondered before shaking his head and following.


	16. Wada Calcium CD3

**Title:** "Home" 

**Author/Artist:** yukari_rin 

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui 

**Fandom:** _Naruto_ 

**Theme:** #28, Wada Calcium CD3

**Rating:** K 

**Word Count:** 829 

**Notes:** For fujiwara_san, my wifey whom I love madly. 

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

* * *

Minato held his arm up and coughed into his shoulder, blinking several times as the dust in the air stung his eyes. He stretched his back and rolled his neck. Shisui simply wiped the top of the box with a rag, peering script written on the old wood. "Ah!" she exclaimed after a moment, picking up the hammer and using the back of its head to pull out the nails keeping it sealed.

"What is?" Minato choked. He wiggled his nose as she gave him a charmed smile.

"A box my father was looking for several years ago."

"What's in it?" The dust in the storage shed was incredibly thick - no one had cleaned it in at least a decade. It was no surprise that her late father couldn't find the box. Minato turned to the outside and tried to breath in a helpful dose of clean air, but in the humid late July day there was no relief for his allergies.

"Vitamins," the Uchiha replied simply, a small and happy smile reaching her eyes.

Minato drew his brows together as he turned back to watch her pull out boxes of unopened bottles. "A nailed shut wooden box holding unopened vitamins?"

She looked up at him, a box of rather large calcium pills in her hands. "They don't go bad, you know."

"That's besides the point, Shisui. Why didn't he just buy one multi-vitamin bottle and buy another when he was finished?"

"My father was a rather queer man," Shisui mused, frowning at the bottle in her hands before raising her gaze to Minato who was watching her from the doorway.

He wiped his hands on his pants and raised a brow. "Is that so?" he asked slowly, smiling amusedly.

She pursed her lips together and looked back at the bottle with a sigh. "It is."

Shisui set the bottle on the floor and repacked the others she had removed, taking care to hammer the lid back down on the box. Minato walked over to her and helped her up, fighting through another fit of coughs. They had spent the last week cleaning out the old storage shed, and the two weeks before it the home Shisui had grown up in. The two had been living together for some time, but with her father's passing it was left up to her to go through the things her parents had retained over the years. There wasn't very much that Shisui had wanted to keep for herself, but the furnishings had been well maintained over the years. Shisui decided the best thing to do would be to have an estate sale. Her uncle Fugaku had volunteered to take care of the important elements of the sale so that she could focus on training for the upcoming Jounin Exam.

Minato lifted the small crate and followed her out into the Summer sunshine, carrying the box to the small pile of things that Shisui had deemed as items without monetary value that might be of use to someone. She locked up the shed with a large rusty key, the calcium pills tucked under her arm.

"Well, that's finished," she breathed out heavily as they met on the lawn.

Minato reached across for her hand and weaved their fingers together. "Are you sure there's nothing more you want?"

She nodded. "This place hasn't been home to me in a long time, and even when it was there was very little I liked about it. My parents were both peculiar people, and their decor fit them, but not us as a family."

"May I ask why you separated that from the rest?" he inquired, nodding to the small box under her arm.

"I thought to put it on his grave. Better late than never, as they say," she pulled the box out with her other hand, reading the text on it. "I think he would appreciate it."

"Would you like to do that before heading home?"

She looked up at him, wordlessly reading his eyes. Without letting go of his hand she rose to her tiptoes and kissed his temple. "I would. Though maybe father would not like someone who criticizes his habits to pay his respects."

She had said it so earnestly that Minato felt guilty for chuckling softly at the comment. "Then I'll head home and start making lunch while you tend to him."

Shisui nodded and squeezed his hand before turning to head towards the Uchiha clan's cemetery. He watched her for several seconds. She never looked back to smile and shoo him on his way, walking determinedly to what would be her final resting place. It always unsettled him - how sure she was of everything she did, never questioning, always accepting. He wondered if a day would come that would change all of that, and if he would be around to see it. He sighed, turning down the opposite direction Shisui headed in towards their apartment, and shook his head, running through the list of what was in their kitchen cabinets and refrigerator.


	17. Radiocassette Player

**Title:** "Last Words" 

**Author/Artist:** yukari_rin 

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui 

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

 **Theme:** #14, radio-cassette player 

**Rating:** T

**Word Count:** 965 

**Notes:** For the_lady_lamb and fujiwara_san. Very very AU. (This is totally not influenced by _Koizora_, totally.) [This is the first of a series of one-shots set in an alternate universe, where Konohagakure is a small town in the Midwestern United States. The_lady_lamb and I are writing one-shots alternately, and while the over all plot has been decided, the one-shots, or chapters, jump through the timeline. I encourage you to head to my writing journal where I have a complete list of the one-shots set in the universe, so that you can read all sides of the story.]

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

* * *

Shisui shifted the gear into park and stared out of the windshield. She swallowed, trying to dislodge the lump in her throat to no avail. Her heart began to race once more, but she held her breath in an attempt to control its pace.

There was nothing but the sound of her breathing and the cooling radiator in the dark interior of her car. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against her folded arms on the steering wheel. Instantly, his face appeared in her mind's eye and she opened her eyes, not wanting to see him. "Go away," she pleaded. Met with silence, she unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed the small music device and its headphones. She opened the door and stepped out into the starry Indian Summer night.

She heard the river flowing ever onwards and breathed in the strong scent of the onion grass. She knew that ten feet before her her the ground sloped downwards at a forty-five degree angle for six feet and met the river that was four feet deep at its center. A warm breeze wrapped itself around her, fingering her hair like a lover. It was shorter now than she had ever had it. But even still, Shisui couldn't feel the wound on her heart healing.

Her fingers tightened around the radio-cassette player. It was an obsolete machine, battered and well-loved. It was - _had been_ - his, but he had left it for her.

Shisui clenched her jaw. In the year that had passed since Minato left (forever) she had never once listened to the tape inside of it, hadn't even brought the player out until tonight, but she knew what was in it. The tape had only ever been removed to flip it over for the other side to play.

It was a recording of a play they had been in when they were no more than children.

A boy and a girl transported to a strange land and their adventures there. Nonsense, really, but it had been fun - as their many recorded giggles attested. Laughter had suited Minato so perfectly. Even as he had grown, as his laughter deepened it tones as his voice changed, it was still light and contagious.

Shisui only laughed with him.

She raised her arm to throw the device but the soft footsteps to her left stopped her. Itachi emerged under the moonlight, his own car parked several feet behind him. "Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked.

She felt her will waver with her heart. "He gave it to me, so it is mine to do with as I please."

"But did you do as he wanted you to?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The tape inside of it - did you listen to it?"

She narrowed her eyes. "What's it to you?"

He sighed, vaguely annoyed. "If you had listened to it I don't think you'd be acting this way."

"It's a tape from when we were little. I've heard it before, in addition to having been present for its recording."

He watched her, expression blank, but his eyes shining. "Is it really?"

Something in his tone made her doubtful. "It was all he ever kept in this old thing."

"Habits can change."

"So what, you listened to it one time while I wasn't around? Is that it? That's trespassing and using private prop-"

"You should listen to it."

"Stop talking like him!" she burst out, shocked at herself.

"Isn't that what you wanted me to be, though?" Itachi asked after a brief pause. "A replacement for your dead lover?"

"No!"

"Then why haven't you listened to the tape?"

Shisui had no reply and looked at the scratched-covered black prism in her hand, memories creeping closer to the forefront of her mind. Itachi sighed again and walked towards her, put the cheap headphones over her ears and pressed the 'play' button. She attempted to get away, but he held her in place. She glared at him as Minato's voice, weak with the disease that took his life met her ears.

_"Shisui, I hope you don't cry for me,"_ the voice that she heard in her dreams every night spoke. _"Your tears always make me feel so powerless, partly because you're so strong you don't need to shed them often. And not being able to wipe them from your eyes... I could never rest in peace."_

She shook her head to shake free of the headphones and tried to step away from Itachi, but he held her head soundly between his hands.

_"You just left - my lips are still tingling from out kiss,"_ Minato laughed and began coughing. It made her flinch, and she fought the urge to reach to her right to pour a cup of water as she had done for him all those times in the hospital. _"You always were a good kisser, you know. Do you remember out first kiss? I do. Like it was yest-"_

Shisui clawed at Itachi's hands and ripped off the headphones. "Why are you doing this?" she demanded.

"Because you need to hear it."

"I've head enough!"

"You're refusing to listen to the the last words of the man you love?"

"Yes! Because, if I hear them, then-" she choked out, unable to hold back a year's worth of mourning any longer, "then it means he's really gone. That he won't be coming back. That I'll never see him again!" She fisted her hands in his light jacket and sank to her knees, chest heaving as she sobbed.

Itachi stood there silently, watching her for several minutes before he crouched down to look her in the eye. He lifted her hands and folded her fingers around the player. "Then you are a even bigger fool than he was."


	18. “Ano sa” “Hey, you know”

**Title:** "You Come Up For Air"

 **Author/Artist:** yukari_rin 

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui 

**Fandom:** _Naruto_ 

**Theme:** #05, "ano sa" ("hey, you know....")

 **Rating:** K 

**Word Count:** 424

 **Notes:** For the_lady_lamb. 

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties. Title and insert taken from Stretch Armstrong's "For Now".

* * *

_you say for now just let me be_

_you say for now I will be beat_

_you cry inside and you die inside_

_I stand by and watch it all go by_

_I hope for you_

_and I'll wait until you smile and you make my heart stand still_

_but, the wait is long_

_will it ever end?_

The lights are off, but the curtains are open and the light of the half moon shies dimly into the room. The ticking of the clock on the dresser is the only noise in the room aside from your breathing, and it drives both of you even closer to the edge you just backed away from. The pain in your chest is growing tighter, clamping your heart down so that each beat, each pump of oxygen-filled blood is so painful you begin to hope you die from it. Words race through your head, but the edge is still so close, and you don't want to fall off.

To fall off would mean the world you've come to know will shatter, and you need its constancy more than ever right now. And yet, you know which is better for you both in the long run.

You want her to speak first, but she was the last to speak, so the ball is in your court now.

Two hundred and forty ticks pass and you stop all pretenses of being on your way to sleep. Both of you are so tense that neither of you will sleep, though you've drenched bleach on the other's wounds, you've hurt the other so deeply that sleep is the only way to heal. You sit up and the blankets fall to your hips. Goosebumps cover your flesh and a knot forms in your throat.

"I'll leave," you tell her, and are out of bed in one swift movement, on your way to the dresser to grab a few items before stuffing them into one of your ever-ready packs. She hasn't moved, but you feel her eyes watching you.

"_Say something!"_ you beg her in your mind. _"Say anything at all, I beg you."_ But she doesn't.

Your apartment is small, made even smaller by the fact that it was really only meant for one person, and even in the darkness you make your way to the front door without a hitch. The crickets have long since ended their nightly concert, and even the owls are quiet. The front door clicks shut behind you, but before you leave you bring your fingers to your lips and press their tips against the door.

As if paying your respects to the dead.

"Hey," you offer above a whisper to the woman far beyond the door, "you know I'll always love you."

And deep inside, you know that she will always love you, too.

But that is the crux of it all.


	19. Dash

**Title:** "The Stars Fall Down"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

**Theme:** #9, dash

**Rating:** T

**Notes:** Set in the small town AU The Lady Lamb and I created. Set before and after Lamb's "Reaper" which you can find by visiting my writing journal, which you can find a link to in my FFN profile.

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

* * *

The sun was setting as Shisui drove home from the hospital. It was a quiet ride, except for the racing thoughts spinning around in her mind as if they're being kept in motion by a tornado. Hadn't it only been earlier that day that Minato's doctor has taken her aside in the hallway and confided that her lover hadn't much longer to live? And here she was, desperately wanting to speed home to take care of his _stupid_, stupid dog so that she could return to his side so he wouldn't be alone, but was stuck behind two tractor-trailers with doublewides on their beds. The speed limit was sixty-five miles per hour along the two-lane highway with nothing but farmland ripe for harvesting only a few feet from the pavement on both sides. The tractors were moving along ten miles per hour slower, and the oncoming traffic was too unpredictable for her to safely cross the yellow dashes painted into the cracked tar surface of the road for her to pass.

Her heart was in her throat, each breath was a struggle to inhale and even harder to release. Her knuckles were white, more so than normal; her long and elegant fingers wrapped tightly around the black steering wheel. Underneath the palm of her right hand was her cell phone, its volume turned all the way up (not that it needed to be since the radio was off) with the vibration mode on. The hospital knew to call her immediately if it looked like Minato was fading fast. It didn't matter where she was, she'd turn around immediately and floor it to the hospital.

Konoha Hospital sat on the border of the town it was named for and an even less populated blip on the map, and of course, Shisui and Minato had picked out an old farmhouse to call their own that was on the opposite side of the town. While the town wasn't exactly a large metropolis, the dozens of farms surrounding the barely-there main street and the college all added up to making the trip between their shared home and the hospital at least a forty minute ride. Shisui was only halfway home and was making bad time. She was torn between keeping her promise to him that she'd take care of his dog and returning to his side before the end could sneak up upon them both. She could lie very easily, say that she sped home and fed the animal and sped back, but dying had made Minato wiser than he had ever been in his healthiest times.

She noticed the red brake lights in front of her at what had to have been the last moment before it was too late. The front bumper of her car was centimeters away from the trailer. She began shaking, full body shivers that raked her to her core. She put the car into reverse and then slipped it into drive, quickly crossing the center line and speeding past the disabled trailers, not bothering to check the oncoming traffic.

The god she didn't believe in must have been on her side, for once, because no one was on course for a frontal collision. (She didn't know if she was happy or sad about this. Minato was at death's door, and she did not want to live without him.) The rest of the way home was clear. It was as if the setting sun had signaled everyone into their homes to be with their loved ones. Everyone but herself.

She cursed the large dog Minato had rescued years before. The animal adored him and Minato was worried about leaving him behind. Minato had asked Shisui to return home to feed the beast and take him out so he could moves his bowels, and to pass on Minato's farewell. There would be no more walks on the campus grounds, no more swimming after fish in the Uzumaki's pond. "_Please, Shisui_," Minato had asked, his thumb tracing the back of her hand as he strained his weak voice to sound his (dying) request, "_please go take care of him. You know how anxious he gets when his schedule is disrupted. He won't take long, he never does. Please, it's the last time I'll ask you to do this._" She had taken his hand in hers. It'd be the last time because he'd get better and there wouldn't be a need for her to take care of the monster of a dog she had never liked. She told him so, but he hadn't even the strength to smile humorously at her stubbornness.

Minato smiled less lately, and each time he simply looked on instead of flashing his grin the knife that had been thrust into her chest twisted and sank deeper. And that was why she wasn't by his side. She was doing this so that he would have to get better. So that she had something to remind him about. A promise is a promise, after all. (Cross your heart and hope to die.)

The sun was just dipping below the horizon, painting the sky as she had never seen it before (and despite her distress there was a small part within her, locked in her fingers that itched for her paint brushes and a canvas. But capturing fire in watercolors was something she had never been able to do.). Konoha was not a coastal town, but would the red sky over it still bring its residents a beautiful tomorrow? Shisui pulled off of the road and down the dirt driveway, the tires of her car spinning up dust in her wake as she sped closer to home.

Kyuubi was barking, pacing the hallway that led from the front of the house to the back. Upon seeing his master's mistress he began whining, bumping his nose and face against Shisui's legs and pelvis. He kept weaving about her legs, crying out to her, causing her to trip several times.

"Just shut up!" Shisui yelled at the dog, unleashing the pent up emotions she had locked away ever since that fateful first trip to the hospital with Minato. "Just get out of my way so I can go back to him!" Tears threatened to fall down her cheeks as she smacked Kyuubi's hips. Normally such action would cause the dog to growl, but he only watched her, his large gold eyes expressing his own grief and loneliness. He sat, voicing one last whine as Shisui ran a hand through her hair, marching off to the kitchen. Kyuubi looked to the door and began whining again as Shisui opened the can of dog food. She dumped it into his bowl and set it on the floor, but he didn't come as he normally did.

Instead he let out a loud, keening howl that caused Shisui to jump and drop the can, splattering small flecks of meat and sauce across the linoleum as the aluminum bounced along the floor before rolling under the table.

She swore and called out to the dog, but he was still howling. She didn't hear the back screen door open and slam shut due to his loud cries. The notes were loud and piercing, making her cringe with each new cry he sounded.

"Shisui?"

She spun around in time to see Kakashi's body twitch at Kyuubi's wailing. His eyes were open wide, stricken, and he had lost his color. "Kakashi, what are you doing here?" she asked over the noise.

"I got a call... it's Professor Namikaze..."

The world was spinning too quickly. She gripped the counter, gasping for breath. Kakashi took a step toward her, but she turned and ran out of the house. Kyuubi followed her, racing down the driveway as Shisui threw herself into her car and put her car into gear. She flipped open her cell phone, cursing when she realized it had shut off due to the battery dying. She must have still been on the road when they attempted any call, so she would have missed it at the house, too.

Dammit. Dammit all.

The speed limit didn't matter. Everyone was home now. Everyone but her. Everyone but Minato.

She made it to the hospital in twenty minutes, slamming on the brakes at the security station at the entrance to the parking lot. She hurriedly told the guard who she was hear to see, and as he fumbled with the button that would raise the gate a familiar car passed by the other side of the small booth. Her fists tightened around the steering wheel.

He didn't turn his head to acknowledge her, but Shisui knew that Itachi has recognized her, or at least her car. The lights on the security booth shone dully into his car, casting an eerie pallor to his skin against the shadows. When he didn't meet her eye, she flicked her gaze further into the vehicle to the man in the passenger seat. He was even harder to see, his dark skin a perfect camouflage in the darkness of Itachi's car. His eyes were bright violet, but after a moment he looked away and shifted in his seat.

Her eyes narrowed in further distaste and focused back on her cousin who was still ignoring her, returning the parking pass to the guard. He drove off, expression cool as could be. Had he been there? The mix of rage and incredible desolation stirred faster, urging her to hurry.

She slid under the gate as soon as she could, not caring about the guard's yells about following proper safety procedures. The closest parking spaces to the entrance were taken, and the few minutes taken to find a free spot and dash into the hospital felt agonizingly slow. The elevator was a small mercy, she was able to squeeze into a full lift right before the doors closed and pressed the button for Minato's floor. She ignored the strange glances the other passengers gave her, clenching and unclenching her hands as the floors ticked by and she was jostled by those exiting and joining.

The doors opened to the seventh floor and Shisui frees herself from the clump of bodies in the elevator like water bursting through a hole in a dam. It took all her control not to race through the quiet, sterile halls to his room. She breezed passed the nurses', only a few more feet.

"Ms. Uchiha!" a nurse called out, rising from her seat behind the tall counter. "Ms. Uchiha, please wait, they're in the middle of-"

Shisui pushed the door open with a stumble, hair falling over her shoulders like wild rain. The doctor and two nurses in the room jumped and took her in with wide, startled eyes. "Miss, I'm afraid you need to step out." The doctor lay his clipboard near Minato's feet.

She did not recognize this man. "I'm his-," she choked out, biting her lip as she searched for the right title. They certainly weren't married, nor were they engaged. With no civil union to bind them she had no proper legal tie to him other than that which he had granted by giving her the power of attorney. "He's my-" The knife in her chest couldn't go any further, the knife hilt was pressing into her skin – she could feel it.

The nurse that had called to her came into the room breathlessly. "Doctor, this is Shisui Uchiha. She's the patient's partner."

"Who are you?" Shisui demanded of the doctor.

The two nurses looked like frightened mice. The one from the station gestured to them to leave the room and they did so happily.

"Mr. Namikaze's doctor is not on call, I'm Dr. Martin, the coroner." He glanced to the remaining nurse, questioning her with his eyes, she shook her head slightly and glanced to Shisui who was visibly shaking where she stood. "I've gotten the important information recorded, I'll let you say your good-bye now."

He moved towards the door and paused before shutting if after the nurse. "I'm sorry for your loss," he offered quietly.

The room had changed dramatically in sixty minutes. Earlier there had been the quiet and steady hum of medical equipment, the bleeping of the heart monitor, the strains of Minato's labored breathing. And now all that there was in the room was silence, its fragile nature only broken by the ever increasing pace and volume of her own realization that all of this was real.

The knife dropped straight down in a clean stroke, slicing down through her gut. She blundered towards his side. The thin white sheet had already been pulled over his torso and head, but she reached out to pull it off of him so that she could hold his hand, caress his cheek.

One last time.

Her chest heaved as a sob she could no longer hold back freed itself. He was so much colder than he had ever been before. Rigor mortis had not sunk its claws into his body just yet, but she could feel the tough muscle underneath his skin on its way to stiffening.

"Minato...?" she whispered. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. But is was and she shook the thought from her head violently, hands curling so tightly around his skin that if she kept her hold it'd stay like that until his body was freed from its rocklike state. "Minato, please..."

Someone had closed his eyes, but he did not look like he was sleeping. Shisui had watched him sleep for so many years, the images of him in various states of rest flicking through her mind like a film reel. Death was but sleep? She sneered at the notion. Were his cheeks really that sunken? She lifted a hand to brush his hair from his face. Death had changed him, nothing felt correct anymore. She kept her hand on his and lifted it to her cheek, kissing his knuckles tenderly, as if it may be enough to bring him back. "Please don't go."

She was crying, the damp cloth of her sleeve told her. Silent sobs kept her chest in constant motion even as her legs grew numb and fell asleep. She lost track of time sitting there as he lay unmoving before her. There was a gentle knock on the door and Kuzunoha entered silently. Shisui didn't look away from Minato's face, but she knew Minato's mother by the fresh scent of the flowers she loved to work with. "Shisui, dear," her voice is soft as she pads closer but stays on the opposite side of the bed. She cups her son's cheek in her hand and her bottom lip trembles. Parents are not supposed to bury their children – it goes against the course of nature. But that is all the older woman can say before she cries out and presses her forehead to Minato's as she had done so often when he was growing up to check his temperature.

And so they mourn together for a few minutes, the mother and the lover over the man-boy they lived for. One letting go of all she had held onto and the other still refusing to give it up.

"Excuse, Ms. Uchiha," the nurse from before poked her head into the room, "I'm sorry, but as Mr. Namikaze's power of attorney we need you to fill out some documents." Shisui wants nothing more than to ignore the woman and continue her vigil, but Kuzunoha lays a hand on top of the one that is holding Minato's.

"Go, dear. I... I'd like a few minutes alone with my son." It is the most selfish thing she has ever heard his mother utter, but soon enough she will know the true measure of Kuzunoha's cruelty. Shisui feels the anger boil up through her throat and into her mouth, ready to pour out on a woman whose pain is no less than hers, however much she may wish it. "Go."

And so Shisui stands shakily, pain shooting through her legs and feet. She leans over Minato and noses his cheek, breathing in his scent that only remains in her memories now and moves her lips over his. The nurse and Kuzunoha have the decency to avert their eyes to the kiss, understanding the importance of privacy for such a moment.

She has never kissed lips so cold before. Another first, another last. She made her way out of the room in a daze and the nurse helped her to the station where she explained what needed to be filled out and directed her to a chair to sit in while Shisui worked.

She was nearly finished when the squeaking of wheels catches her attention. The coroner is being assisted by two orderlies, bringing Minato out of his room and heading to a private elevator that opens to the morgue in the hospital's basement. Shisui stood but was unable move. Kuzunoha stepped into the hall, and for the first time in a month Minato's hospital room was empty, never to be filled with visitors for him again. She turned and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'll go see if the gift shop has any boxes we can use for his things."

Shisui nodded dumbly and added her signature to the last form. She returned them to the nurse who offered a sympathetic smile. Shisui returned it as best she could, knowing that her smile had been anything but. She opened the door to the room one last time. It was so incredibly empty now. Just as how their - _her_ home would be now, without Minato there. She took a deep breath and walked into the bathroom. She turned the cold water lever and splashed her face several times, letting the rivulets streak down her face instead of wiping them away with one of the thin hospital towels. She walked back into the room and began collecting the items that had attempted to turn Minato's room into something homey. There was the poem and the drawings the students in his advisory group had made, all of the flowers, and the books that Shisui had read aloud to him from. She went to grab his duffle bag, but when she opened it all of the clothes were already folded.

The knife twisted once more.

Itachi had been with him, if not while he passed, too near to its happening for her comfort. Kuzunoha returned with a box and disrupted that line of thought for a few moments as they helped each other pack up the last of Minato's things. The left the room together and bid farewell to the nurses. They parted in the lobby, the older woman to her car, Shisui to the cafeteria where she loses herself in thought. Her obvious grief keeps the staff from approaching her, and she is left alone to prepare herself for her first night of the rest of her life without Minato.


	20. The Road Home

**Title:** "Homecoming"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

**Theme:** #20, the road home

**Rating: **T

**Word Count:** 811

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

It was probably the shortest war in the history of the five great nations, but as Minato walked through the dense forest of his homeland, the time he had spent on the front seemed to him an eternity, and he wanted nothing more than to be home, and reacquaint himself with the familiar things he had missed.

For there were a great many changes that occurred due to the war.

He had lost Obito nearly two years before and the loss still grieved him.

He had lost Rin only a few weeks ago, the day before the cessation of fighting was called.

Kakashi and he had been continually stationed apart after the boy had been deemed fit for work after his eye transplant. His new ANBU ranking kept him in more danger than Minato thought was necessary, but he was no longer Hatake's direct superior and could do nothing to stop it.

Konoha itself had changed slightly. After the Fire Country absorbed the former Whirlpool Country, the smaller nation's shinobi followed suit, trading in their Uzugakure issued flack vests and hitae-ate for Konoha's. Tensions were still strong between the two groups, Minato reflected as he watched the platoon he was heading home with remain in formation while being almost completely segregated. The Uzu-nin were a peculiar bunch, but Minato had befriended a family of shinobi from the former village that was generally esteemed by their people. Jiraiya had encouraged Minato to make friends with them so that he could act as an intermediary in any future scuffles.

The great wall surrounding Konoha rose up from the forest canopy and all of the shinobi picked their feet up a little higher and lengthed the strides. Home was in sight, and inside its walls the weariness of war would quickly melt away.

A few hundred feet further and the doors began swinging open to welcome the troop. There were some people waiting along side the medical ninja who were on stand-by for triage. Minato quickly scanned the welcoming party for Shisui's face, but didn't allow his heart to sink to deeply after confirming she wasn't there. He brushed away the medic who wanted to examine him and called out his departure to his captain.

"Oi! Namikaze! First round's on Tsukasa!" Kaigyo, one of the siblings from Uzugakure he had befriended called out to him, annoying the medic who was fussing over the many cuts he was sporting.

"He'll take a raincheck, if that's okay with you," the sweetest voice Minato had ever heard spoke right behind him. Instantly it was as if the invisible weight Minato had been carrying on his shoulders was lifted. He reached back and Shisui held his hand between hers.

Kaigyo whistled and grinned. "I don't blame him." Minato waved good-bye and turned to Shisui.

She was a sight for sore eyes. She had returned to the village some weeks before, so the grime of battle and traveling was scrubbed away from her alabaster complexion. Her black hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck. She had a grocery bag nearly filled with fresh produce looped around one elbow. "Come on, let's get you home."

He let her lead he through the village's streets at a sedate pace as he took in the sights. A sense of nostalgia came over him as he walked. So much was as he remembered, but here and there there was something new or different. The dango shop had been a general confectionary when he had left. One home had added flower boxes to its windows, letting bright pops of color brighten a shaded alley. Some vendors called out a greeting to him as he passed, shinobi nodded their heads in comradeship. "It's good to be back," he murmured.

Shisui chuckled gently. "Just wait until you've had a decent shower and meal. You'll feel even better, I promise."

"I know something else that will make the end of the war even better," he suggested while rubbing the back of her left hand with his thumb.

Shisui smiled knowingly and kept her attention in front of her. "Yes, well. After you're cleaned up we'll see what what we can do about that, hm?"

Minato stopped walking and tugged her close to him with his hand in hers. He brought his free hand up to her chin and held her face tilted up to his. "Do I have to wait that long for a simple 'welcome home' kiss?"

"It's yours for the taking whenever you want it," was her reply.

Ignoring the pedestrians he lowered his mouth to hers for a chaste kiss. He breathed in the scent of her jasmine perfume and lingered a moment before stepping back.

"I'm home," he told her, squeezing her hand.

"Welcome home," she offered him, leading him onward once more.


	21. Fence

"The Beginning of the End" (Naruto, Yondaime Hokage [Namikaze Minato] x Uchiha Shisui, #25)

**Title:** "The Beginning of the End"

**Author/Artist:** Yukari Rin

**Pairing:** Yondaime Hokage (Namikaze Minato) x Uchiha Shisui

**Fandom:** _Naruto_

**Theme No.:** #25, fence

**Rating:** M

**Word Count:** 1,541

**Notes:** Part 1/?

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

Shisui tucked her chin to her breastbone and gasped, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. The sheets were wet with sweat and fluids, the soft cotton sticking to her back as she moved against it.

Minato's hands were clamped around her hips, fingers digging into iliac crests, sure to leave bruises. She rest her cheek against the damp blond of his head and cried out at his intensity. His mouth was hot and slick against the column of her neck, pressing down on the pulse. She lifted a shaking hand to his back, "Mina-", another wince.

_A whispered plea, "Minato, please," as red hair spills over the edge of his bed, her head tossed in pleasure._

He jerked his face away from her neck and froze. He stared down at Shisui with wide eyes, scarcely breathing. Her own expression she knew as if she could see it – brows drawn together in an unsightly clump above the top of her nose, mouth open in question. He backed away as if burned, pulling out of her without ceremony.

He started to speak, but the tightness in his throat allowed no words to be shared. He turned and walked quickly to the adjoining bathroom, shutting the door with a quiet slam. Shisui sat up and pulled the sheet over her chest. The pipes clanged and water came shooting out of the head. She knew instinctively it was cold water he was using. She sat for a few moments, growing chilled without his warmth.

There weren't any towels in the bathroom.

She slowly lifted herself off of the bed (she felt like bruised jelly) and pulled on her discarded panties and the jounin shirt he had been wearing. The basket of clean laundry was on the chair near the bathroom door and she lifted two of the thick red towels and knocked on the door before sliding it open.

He was standing with his head under the shower head, palms pressed flat against the wall. The curtain wasn't drawn. He didn't look up as she entered. Shisui placed the towels on the sink counter and watched the water cascade down his body. "Was it the mission?" she asked quietly, just above the pounding of the water.

"Not the last, no," he replied in a more hushed tone. He closed his eyes and curled his fingers against the tiles.

"I'll make some tea," she informed him, turning and shutting the door without a sound.

* * *

The Uchiha had a long history of feline familiars, though they treated the connection much differently than the Inuzuka clan did with dogs. Shisui, however, had a great dislike in general of cats. It was an irrational dislike, she knew that very well, but it was one of the things about her that hadn't changed since becoming intimate with her childhood companion. (Minato was ambivalent about them – good for keeping mice away, but they liked to chase his frogs...)

Shisui did everything possible to keep cats off of her property. It was difficult, though, since her father had loved the species deeply. Even years after his passing cats still came by, hoping for his attention.

The cat on the high wall surrounding her home was a new one. Slim and long-backed its ruddy fur was sleek in the sunlight. Shisui stared at it from the kitchen window, willing it to leave. _Cats are ill omens-_

Instead it slowly turned its head and met her gaze, settling down on the top of the fence and bathing.

_"Not the last, no."_

The shuriken left her fingers before Shisui realized it, but the cat jumped down onto the street before the metal star could sink itself into its thick coat.

It had been a week since the Whirlpool Village had been declared officially destroyed, and Kushina was still in the hospital.

She wondered, had he stopped by to visit the girl on his way home? It'd be so like him to do so. She clenched the rim of the sink, tea kettle forgotten under the running faucet. The front door opened with a slight creak and she forcibly loosened her grip, rescuing the tea pot from drowning. "Minato?" she called, doing her best to sound unbothered.

The man himself entered the kitchen and stepped behind her, arms wrapping around her waist, preventing her from moving. His lips found the nape of her neck, bared by her uncharacteristic up do. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" There was no hiding the slight edge to her voice.

"For last night," he breathed slowly, mouth moving against her skin. "I..." His fingers dug into her hips, pressing against the still fresh bruises.

"No," she said quietly. "It's okay." She hoped she sounded convinced. "It happens to all of us."

Minato took a step back and turned her so she was facing him, hands still holding her in place. Shisui braced one hand on his chest and another on the counter. He searched her face, blue eyes imploring her for something she did not know. In an instant his gaze sharpened and focused beyond the window, at the gleaming metal in the sunlight. Shisui looked back and then slid her eyes to his.

"There was a cat," she said simply.

Minato's hands released her carefully and she went back to preparing tea as he watched her, wanting to speak but not knowing the words to use.

* * *

A month later Kushina was released. There was a party held for her at a small dive of a restaurant that Shisui wouldn't have ever thought about even looking at on her own. She spent most of the party poking at her food and listening to the conversations Minato joined in. They were sitting next to each other, with Kushina a few seats away at the head of the table. Shisui didn't know the majority of the ninja present, and her cool demeanor scared off many from approaching her, enabling her to watch her surroundings like a hawk.

The red cat had taken to teasing Shisui, lazing about the fence outside her home at every possible chance despite Shisui's constant attempts to harm it. It was a quick animal, always dodging the knives and blades Shisui threw at it. Watching Kushina at the party, Shisui could not help but think of the animal.

Kushina was small and lithe, with a healthy glow to her skin. Her red hair complimented her complexion, and her eyes were bright with happiness. Her mouth was in near constant motion, talking quietly to those close-by one moment and calling out to the other end of the restaurant the next. She had a healthy appetite, the Uchiha noticed. And not just for the food on the plate before her.

The beer and sake had been making their rounds so the less than covert glances Kushina stole at Minato were missed by most of the kunoichi's friends. Shisui, however, noticed each one, the knots in her stomach and throat that had formed weeks ago constricting with each moment. But what sent ice through her veins were the times that Minato couldn't ignore the feeling of being watched, when he would meet Kushina's eyes before looking away and loudly offering his thoughts to a discussion on the opposite end of the table.

After the third time Shisui stared open at Whirlpool ninja, willing the redhead's green eyes to lock with hers. The moment came and Shisui was satisfied at the other woman's jerk of fear upon seeing the red and black of the Uchiha bloodline limit.

That night, in the privacy of her bedroom she gave herself to Minato. He was desperate, distracted. She twisted her hips quickly, pulling him downward so that she could rise above him. The warm evening breeze blowing through the thin curtains, whispering to her the thoughts she had been trying to ignore for so long now.

The silence of the night, punctuated only by the sounds of their love-making, was interrupted by the yowling of a cat in heat as it sought a mate.

* * *

There is no denying the tension that lies between Shisui and Minato now. He is hiding something and she does her best to ignore it, but the doubt and fear wears her down, eroding at her confidence. She begins to falter on missions, a fact which does not go unnoticed by the Hokage, and worse, by her clansmen. She is watched, and as such, is unable to meet with Minato. So the tension grows thicker, more suffocating.

She sees them one afternoon on her way home from a mission. Minato's head is lowered, brows knit together as Kushina looks up at him, eyes wide with an emotion Shisui cannot read from her distance. He raises a hand to her face, but doesn't rest it upon her cheek. Instead he makes a fist and lowers it to his side. Kushina closes her eyes and lays her hands on her stomach. Minato's eyebrows relax a bit, and his expression softens ever so slightly as he watches her fingers flex and straighten against the material of her skirt.

Shisui drops the scroll she is carrying, and somehow in the bustle of the village, it catches their attention.

And she knows it is all over.


End file.
